Federal prosecutors say a Longmont man promised dozens of elderly investors safe returns in government-backed bonds but used their retirement money instead to pay his mortgage.

Gary Snisky, 47, allegedly used his Longmont-based company, Arete LLC, to target elderly annuity holders and relied on legitimate insurance agents he hired to lure them in, according to federal criminal and civil charges filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Instead, Snisky used much of the $3.8 million he took from more than 40 investors in eight states to pay his mortgage and cover commissions to those who sold the investments.

“With one hand, Snisky ushered investors into a supposedly safe investment opportunity with guaranteed profits, and with the other hand he put investors’ money into his own pocket,” said Julie Lutz, the SEC’s newly named director of its Denver regional office.

A self-proclaimed institutional trader — no registration record exists of Snisky with the SEC or the Financial Industry Regu- latory Authority — he allegedly said he used government-backed bonds to do legitimate overnight banking sweeps.

Snisky is to be arraigned Tuesday and remains in federal custody.

Snisky is also a defendant in a related lawsuit filed in March by Colorado Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph, who alleged Snisky sold unregistered securities using a variety of company names, bilking $3.2 million from about 20 investors.

David is a member of the Investigations Team and has been at The Denver Post since 1999. He was a founding member of the team before writing about banking, finance, human services, consumer affairs, and business investigations. He has also worked at newspapers in New York, St. Louis and Detroit over a 35-year career that began at The Post.

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